Code:Prototype
by PsOhKiEpMpOeNr9
Summary: X.A.N.A. is long gone, but now the Hive Mind has taken over. When the 'Mercer' or Blacklight virus strikes, one of the Lyoko warriors is 'gifted' by a Brawler, one of the mutant monsters. With Infection sprawling across Paris and her suburbs, our hero guides the Marines in a rebellion against Gentek, and her corrupt Blacwatch system.
1. Intro

Intro

Infected birds. Birds, they said. How could birds get from Manhattan Island, across the ocean, and into France? Whatever. The reason isn't important anymore. The point is, this must come to an end. But to what end? What about all the people I knew? What became of them? Are they where I left them? Or do they wander the streets as another Infected, or even a Brawler? These thoughts and many others shot through my mind at the speed of a bullet. Ha, interesting choice of words. Bullet. Being a French Marine, I was accustomed to such terms. Let me explain.

It's been 5 years since first encountering X.A.N.A. To be more precise, it was about three weeks to graduation from Kadic and we had beaten X.A.N.A., twice. Or at least it was, before shit hit the fan. According to Blackwatch, as well as the science community, birds, or something of the like, infected with the Mercer Virus made their way across the ocean, hitting Spain, Great Britain, France, and several other select countries across the world. Bullshit if you ask me. More like that there's a Gentek facility somewhere in Paris or the surrounding suburbs and one of their experiments got loose. They were the one that let the 'Mercer' Virus get into Alex Mercer's hands. I know what it was once called. It **was** called the Blacklight Virus. But they changed the name to take the blame away from them for creating it.

It hit my suburb the hardest of the city of Paris. Val-de-Marne, at 245 square kilometers, was somewhat hit and is still picking up the rubble. It's known as the PZ: YZ, or Paris Zone: Yellow Zone. Seine-Saint-Denis, at 236 square km, was almost untouched but still under heavy military guard to stomp out the remains. That would be the Green Zone, or PZ: GZ. My suburb, Sceaux, along with the rest of Hauts-de-Seine and Paris, at a combined area of 263 km, had been reduced to an unhospitable cesspool known as the Red Zone (PZ: RZ). The whole city, nothing but a ruin of what it once was. Within hours of infection, a majority of the population was a bunch of walking, mindless meat sacks bent on destruction. The military ordered the people to take up arms. They couldn't react fast enough and needed first responders, minutemen if you will. The owner of a local gun store began going out, handing guns to those willing to take them.

When the van pulled up to Kadic, several people stood at the entrance, including me. The van was white, with the words, _Arnold's 'Arcy'nal of Weapons, _painted on the side in large, purple and black, carnival style letters. Arnold stepped out of the van, and asked to see Mr. Delmas. Sissy ran off to find him, and I asked, "So what are you doing here?"

He looked at me. He was about 5'8", with his dark hair parted to one side. His brown eyes squinted tight to block the light and his lips parted ever so slightly, revealing his shining white teeth. His caramel colored skin shone with sweat. He wore a light blue, button up short sleeve shirt with white chinos. His dark loafers twitched as he leaned back on his heels. When he opened his mouth to answer, his voice was a mid-bass. "I'm here to speak to your principal."

"What about?" Someone asked in the background.

"I was hoping to turn this into a second stronghold. One for people to come to for evacuation." He answered nonchalantly. In crisis we were in, I wasn't very surprised he would go out and tell us. We were getting ready to get into the van and leave the city ourselves.

"I'm afraid we can't do that." Delmas said as he began to shove his way through the crowd of students.

"What do you mean? This is one of the safest places in town." He said.

"The entire city is soon to fall. We should be leaving, not risking these children for a few extra lives." Delmas said this seriously. Arnold and Delmas stared each other down for what seemed like hours. Eventually, Arnold backed off.

"Fine. Save the children. It'll be your military arrest ending your career for abandoning innocent lives. This place could easily hold against the Infected." He stormed back to the side door to the van. "Still, I am obligated to offer you ammunition while you get ready to abandon both your camp and humanity." He grabbed the door and slid it open. "I have all sorts of weapons to offer."

Delmas looked him straight in the eye. "We don't need your charity. Leave this campus, now."

"Like it matters." Arnold started. "This suburb has been quarantined. If you show up at the border without military escort, you'll be shot dead." Delmas narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but Arnold's face didn't show any signs of having lied. He was dead serious.

Delmas motioned the students back onto campus. He spoke low enough, so that Arnold couldn't hear. "New plan. We're holding out on campus until the military arrives."

"What about guns?" I asked. "We need a way to protect ourselves." A lot of students nodded in agreement.

"Fine. Arm yourselves and get back on campus. Five minutes, then the gate closes." Saying this sped past the kids and asked for a pair of pistols. Arnold handed them to him along with what looked like a laptop case filled with bullets.

"Split these among some of your students." Arnold said. Delmas then turned and handed a pistol to his daughter.

"Come dear. Let's start setting barricades." He said. Sissy reluctantly followed, only wanting to see what I would grab. A long line formed of about 50 students. I'd say that was about maybe 500 kids. Seven grades with about 70 some odd kids in each grade. The others thought it was too long and headed back to help set barricades.

More than Five minutes passed until it was my turn. Surely he would wait long enough for me pick something up and get back in.

I was 18, and had developed quite the reaction timing from Lyoko. so I picked up a M-16 with quite a few extra clips. I would've taken more, but he claimed, "Sorry, but I need to get to the park. From there, I can arm survivors that get there and get out myself. Keep your eyes open for weapons and ammo left on the streets for the passerby." and pulled off. I was about to get back inside the gates, but the groundskeeper showed up at the gate and closed it. To add insult to injury, when I stepped out, they happened to be setting up barbed wire and other stuff along the wall, so things couldn't crawl over. So, without thought, he locked the gate and covered it in grease from the cafeteria. Poor Odd, it probably killed him to see that grease just given to the Infected. It was bright and sunny when they did this, like they didn't see me. They saw me and left me out there to die.

So I had no choice.

I left the school in search for the city park. The guy in the van said that was where people where gathering, and also where the military was going to do a mass evac when they arrived. I began to walk down the street. I had been to the park before. That was where the Hermitage sat. I remember that place well. That was where all Princess' nightmares kept leading to. That was also where the Furnace room incident happened.

I even went so far as to steal the electric bus. I might be terrible at academics, but dammit I have the best set of street smarts among the group, except maybe William. Hotwiring the old thing, it peeled out and headed for the park. At that time, I wasn't seeing very many infected. They were all at the park and other heavily populated areas. Most were empty with shattered windows and doors hanging open. Others were covered in scratches and bloodstains. So, I followed the sound of bullets, as well as the trails of dead bodies. God, what were these people using? I saw some infected simply soaked in their own blood. Some visibly had holes in their bodies, or chunks missing. Several were dismembered, or even disemboweled. Their intestines strewn across the street as a testament to their waste of life.

Then, I came upon a turn. Right and left were clear, but two cop cars blockaded the path straight ahead. The doors were shut and the lights flashed without sound. The Infected were swamping the vehicles. They were absolutely determined to break through to blockade. Maybe the light was distracting them. There wasn't any cops in the car. They were probably either hiding behind the cars or part of the Infected. I couldn't tell what they saw though, as I could only see black smoke rising into the air, greedily fed by what smelled like burning garbage.

A cross wind picked up and blew the smoke away from the crowded street. At the other end of the block, I could see two more cop cars blocking the other entrance. In the middle of the street sat a pile of corpses. They were the burning corpses of the Infected, used to attract other Infected to add to the pile. I didn't see the cops anywhere though. There should have been about 8, two to each car. But I didn't see anything. I was about to turn away when I heard a gunshot.

Looking up, I saw a single officer standing behind what was presumably her car. A brown ponytail stuck out from under her blue hat. Still in uniform, her skin looked really pale in comparison. She couldn't have been older than 25. She held the rifle from within her cruiser weakly, not sure what to do. Her pistol sat in its holster. _She needs help and I'm the only one that can give it._

My lead foot slammed into the pedal. The engine roared to life with energy and jolted forward. I jerked the bus over to the right. It then slammed between the cop cars and stopped next to the woman. Sticking the column shift into park, I ran out and leveled my rifle. "Are you nuts?" She yelled. But I pulled the trigger anyway. It flew just past her ear and slammed into the face of a female Infected. She screamed gutturally and fell to the ground as blood poured from her wound. The officer looked at the crumpled mass behind her. "Thanks."

I grabbed her elbow. "We need to get going." I pulled, but she stayed standing where she was. "What's wrong?" Then I heard her sniffle.

She turned to me with eyes full of tears. "My partner is wounded. One of those things clawed him, and we need to get him to camp. He can be cured, I'm sure of it." She ran over to her cruiser and pulled out a man. Part of his sleeve was torn, exposing three distinct claw marks on his arm. He looked pale and was groaning. She then slung him over her back.

"As if I'm going to take a biter with me!" I yelled. "Now drop him, he's no good anymore."

"No. You're lying to me! There has to be a cure. I know it!" She yelled in defiance. She took a step forward, then screamed.

"What happened?" I asked. She fell to her knees. I could see over her shoulders. Her 'partner' had turned and bit her in the side.

"Please help me!" She screamed. She stuck out her arms, wanting me to carry her. The Infected dropped to the ground. It stood and raced towards me. I lifted rifle, tightly gripping the trigger. "No!" She screamed out as I fired a round into his head. His head jerked back, tossing Infected blood into the air. His own momentum threw his legs into the air and landed on his back. He leaned forward to get back up, but I silenced his movements with a shot to the heart. He fell back like a limp doll. "What have you done? You killed him! I should have you arrested for murder."

I looked at her with cold eyes. Her body had already began to mutate where the wound was. I was bubbling up like boiling water. She was gone. She looked at me both with disbelief and desperation. Her mouth said 'How could you?', but her eyes said, 'End me. Do it before I get you.' I swallowed hard, then said, "You can't murder what's already dead." And I pulled the trigger. The bullet struck her straight in the bubbling mass on her right side. Blood mixed with a thick, yellow puss oozed out onto the pavement as her body fell limply forward onto the ground. The same goo slowly crawled its way out of her mouth.

I could only stand there in disbelief. I just killed two police officers. Two people, dead by my hands. But were they still people in the state they were in? I didn't know then, and I don't know now. But at that time, I nearly made myself sick with guilt of killing two people conflicted with this disease that consumed so many other minds before them. The only thing that brought my senses back to me was the sound of fast footsteps. Turning around, several Infected charged at me, mouths open. Then I noticed something. The same bubbling mass on her side appeared on the heads of all these… things. The bubbling mass probably built up in the wound spot, then made its way to the brain, to control the person infected. That must be their weak spots.

I lifted my rifle to my shoulder and cracked a round into the bubbling site on one man's stomach. Puss oozed out as he grabbed the wound. He doubled over in pain, then crumpled to the ground. I let out about a half clip into the Infected running at me. All of them dropped instantly if I shot them in either spot. I ran back to the bus and sat down. My hands were still shaky from the thoughts in my head. But I had to stay focused if I were to survive. I shifted into reverse and pulled back. Swerving to the right, I shoved the shift into drive and drove down the road. I was only a block away from the park.

Turning the corner to my refuge, I saw a weak barricade of sandbags at the entrance. It wouldn't have held long with all the infected at it anyway. So, I did the sensible thing in my situation. I drove the bus up against the wall to the park. It grinded to a stop in front of the gate. By grinded, I mean skidded on all the infected juices and organs that got scattered under the wheels, making the whole thing slick. I killed the engine and grabbed my rifle. _Instinct, rely only on instinct, _I told myself. If I didn't stay focused on surviving, I wouldn't. Taking the butt of the rifle, I shattered a window and climbed out. I could hear the glass crunch under my shoes, like autumn leaves, or fresh snow. Looking at the sky, I could see the sky turn gray with clouds. It would probably rain soon. I would've ran deeper in, but a voice called for me. I didn't know the man, but he saw I had a weapon.

"Yeah?" I answered without looking his way.

"Get up here and help survivors get in." The man answered. I turned around to see scaffolding set up along the whole wall. Men and women with assorted weapons stood, shooting down infected and flagging survivors to climb through the bus. The man that called out my name stood next to the gate, facing me. He was a gruff looking man. Probably in his forties, about 6', balding with a black comb over and a beer belly. He wore a white wife beater with blue jeans. He was more than likely a construction worker. He also had a five o'clock shadow and brown work boots. In his hands, he held dual pistols and his tool belt was full of extra clips.

I climbed up and began to shoot along with him. Shooting the infected was like fish in a barrel. I was up there maybe 15 minutes before my ammo ran dry. By that time, I had seen almost 300 people get into the park. As I was about to fetch more from deeper within, I heard a low thundering. Several choppers flew overhead, as well as several APC's and cargo trucks rolled up to the entrance, escorted by a tank. The barrel swung directly towards the bus. With a single, low roar, the bus ignited into flames, with shrapnel and glass being thrown into the air. It rolled through the now widened gap. The others followed swiftly. All the people got down and started heading for the camp. I only followed them until I reached what they kept calling Point Alpha.

Then I came to the clearing the Hermitage sat in. Men and women alike filled this safe haven. Not a single one I recognized. None of my friends or family made it. But what was the likelihood of my parents being in Sceaux anyways? When trucks drove by, they were led by marines in forest camo. When the choppers landed, these mysterious men got out. They had the coolest outfits.

They were in all black agile armor. They looked like S.W.A.T. members, but they were completely covered. A silver gauntlet/communicator adorned each soldiers' left arm. Some carried assault rifles. Others had LMG's, while others had grenade launchers and even others had rocket launchers similar to the Stingray. Their faces were covered with a black mask that head blue glass binocular mods over their eyes. A blue hood hung over the entire thing. These were the Blackwatch troops.

They walked over and began sweeping their gauntlets in front of people. Three slits that glowed light purple would either turn green or red. These men worked without speaking. If it turned red, they placed you in the back of a truck. If it turned green, they shoved towards the troop choppers. Thankfully, I was scanned green and shoved onto a chopper. I was the first one in the second chopper, and got to sit on the bench in the back. By the time the people were scanned, only 100 people showed green and got too be in a chopper. And that was out of the possibly 1000's in the clearing. The rest were piled onto the trucks until there was no more room. Even Arnold went onto a truck.

To be honest, I haven't even seen or heard from or about him since. The rest stayed behind with Marine and Blackwatch alike, both radioing in more vehicles. A bright flash of lightning cascaded through the now thick, grey clouds. Then the rain started to fall. It was a sign. A sign that things to come would only be worse. As the chopper lifted into the air, I heard two voices. Looking up, a video feed was playing of two men standing next to each other.

One was of an old, bald man in forest camo. The other wore the Blackwatch outfit, but without the headgear. His skin was tanned and his head shaven. Although I missed their names, two names appeared under them. The man in the camo was a high ranking Marine named General Augustin Beaumont. The Blackwatch member was the head of military procedures under the name of Commander Girard Duval.

Beaumont started. "Now that introductions are done with, let's get down to business."

Duval picked up. "You've been selected to become either a Marine or Blackwatch troop, or you can go back to the green zone and start a 'normal' life." It quickly became apparent that they would trade lines.

"Yes. The scanner both pulled up your current medical status for physical and mental health."

"You were chosen because you were both clean of the Mercer Virus and other diseases in general. Also, you were still mentally stable after the events that conspired, which I'm sure horrified many."

"But you're here because you survived and stayed level headed. Others were picked off because they were clean, but not level headed. They are transported in APC's to the green zone."

"Some were found mentally stable, but surface infected. If they aren't cleansed, they will only spread the infection. So they go to the Yellow Zone, for now at least."

"They may be elevated to Green over time. Finally, those that were both surface infected and unstable will be cleansed and then checked for stability so they can reenter society."

"As for you though, you have a decision to make. When these choppers land, you can either line up to be a Blackwatch troop, a Marine, or you can sign a waiver and be released back in with other people in the Green Zone."

"Now for some pointers. Marine armor like mine," he said this, tugging on his clothes. "Is lightweight and allows for more movement."

Duval held his headgear in front of himself. "But my armor provides better protection. You won't move as fast, but you will look pretty awesome and be able to protect yourself from bites as well as bullets." They both saluted the people crowded onto the chopper before the video cut to black. I already had my path picked out. I was just going to live a life in the Green Zone.

When I heard the engine die and saw the doors slide open, I stepped out and glanced at what other people were doing. Of the one hundred people getting off, 50 went to the Blackwatch, 39 went to the Marines, and 11, including me, went towards the exit of the makeshift military base in . It was in Seine-Saint-Denis. It was built around a park in Drancy, France. The place was called Parc de Ladoucette. It probably paid homage to the base in the NYZ Green Zone's Lincoln Meadows. It used the park's community building and armed it up as a sort of central hub.

Massive concrete walls stood about 15 feet high all around the park and courtyard to the community building, which stood in the middle of the base. We were in the massive clearing behind the community building. It was a beautiful, lively green. The structure was built up of bricks with white concrete blocks along the corners and around the several windows. A spire stood about another 15 feet out of the top of the building. Several mean with sniper rifles and automated guns poked out the windows to the spire, watching the streets below. They were all Blackwatch soldiers.

As we approached the entrance, a Marine came by and handed each of us a waiver to sign. I started reading it. Speaking out loud to myself, I read the document. "You are hereby released from any military duty." Was what I read. Down at the bottom, in tiny text, it had an asterisk. _In agreement of the conditions, you agree to serve 72 hours in Gentek testing. Remember, only you can bring the cure._

"Forget that…" I said under my breath. I handed the waiver back to the Marine and walked to my second choice. I got in line with the 39 other to be Marines. I didn't want to be associated with Blackwatch, ever. As I approached, a Sergeant was addressing the rest of the people.

A Marine came by, handing out uniforms. They were Urban camo with a black helmet that had a white band around the forehead. A black face mask was for covering your mouth and hiding your identity. I slipped mine on quickly enough, later of course. Then the Sergeant said, "Alright. Due to time contraints, no basic or AIT training will take place. You have already showed and proved your strength by surviving as well as you did. You will be separated into groups of 5 and then deployed on different jobs. He then started counting out by five and giving an order. "Patrol. Patrol. Staying here on guard. Yellow Zone patrol. Yellow Zone base duty. Yellow Zone checkpoint duty. Riot control." Then he approached the last five that I was in. "You'll be on Signal Watch."

Another Marine came up from behind us. All I could see of him was his nose and blue eyes. "Alright. I'll be leading you. Our job is to listen and watch for signals of survival in the Red Zone, then to go in and pull out the survivors. Several checkpoints are in the Red Zone, but it is best to be ready to signals to come from anywhere." With that, we marched off after him. It was explained later that bases in the Red Zone stand for people to come to it and to gather Infected subjects. Ground vehicles will make their way out, but a chopper from either of the other zones is still faster. Choppers in the Red Zone are constantly out on air strike missions or observation.

Since then, I haven't done much. But I have gone out on a few patrol rotations and seen the horror of life in the France Zone. People gunned downed without reason or for little reason. I've seen people thrown in cages, and some people taken to testing facilities. I've taken some people to those facilities. It isn't a good life, but it's the only one I have. In the course of my work, I've been promoted to Private First Class.

Now, about a two weeks later, we've received our first signal. It came from Kadic Academy, Sceaux, Hauts-de Seine, France. I sit in the chopper, surrounded by the five people I've come to know well. I'd tell you their names, but that don't matter much anymore. Every day is a blur of information, just waiting for life to end, or change. I just hope that all my friends are okay. Last year, upon graduation, William just disappeared, never to be heard from again. Yumi graduated and said she'd wait a year. We, as in the group, planned to start our lives in the same University. Today would've been graduation. Sometimes I still imagine that scene. Walking up the courtyard, surrounded by the people I know, love, and miss. I would be wearing a forest green suit with black loafers and a red tie. Walking up to Mr. Delmas, him handing me my diploma, and saying, "Congratulations Ulrich Stern, you're now ready to go to University and begin your new life."


	2. Fate's Sick Twist

Chapter 1: Fate's Sick Twist

Me and my squad stared out at the neighborhood I grew up in. Everything seemed so different, so malformed. I remember seeing the bustling inner city, but now it was just a cold reminder. Massive tendrils nearly as large as the buildings jutted from the ground and attached to buildings. Smoke rose into the air from burnings buildings, corpses and wreckage. This black smoke mixed into a disturbingly dark grey with the thick overcast hanging oddly low in the sky. Seeing all this brought up one last memory.

While waiting for a signal, I volunteered for checkpoint duty. The checkpoint I was positioned next to an alley for them to store things. A curtain had been hanging in front of it. I had been smelling this… smell from behind that curtain all day. It kinda reminded me of the smell of death. You know, like the smell of a nursing home full of people that are constantly pumped with drugs to survive. That kind of smell that leaves you in disgust and confusion.

Being a Marine, we are only allowed to check vehicles. So I watched one direction while another watched the other direction. Checking vehicles was simple enough. You take a look at the guy, take an X-ray of the inside of the vehicle and flag him through or stop him for further investigation. I was checking an unmarked moving truck when I heard a beeper go off, followed by screaming.

Turning around, I saw a Blackwatch soldier grab a woman by the arm and yank her to the ground. She was screaming, pleading for him to let it go. He only responded with. "Shut up, scum! Get on your knees with your hand on your head!" She crawled over next to three other people, all being male. They were in the same position. You see, people don't get a second chance if they're caught with contraband. They're either shot or shipped to a Gentek test site. Four Blackwatch soldiers stood behind the group of civilians. Their leader wore a slim black suit with a sky blue visor and a yellow stripe down the side.

He walked over behind the men and barked into their ears loud enough that we could all hear. "Put these maggots in their place! Tell them who we are and what we are about!" Simultaneously, four rifles lowered to the shaky heads of the people about to meet their end. Traffic had come to a dead standstill. Both foot traffic and street. No one could tear their eyes away from the horror, or their ears from the sound of authority.

The four Blackwatch belted out. "When we hunt, we kill. No one is safe, nothing is sacred. We are Blackwatch. We are the last line of defense. We will burn our own to hold the redline. It is the last line to ever hold." At that, four gunshots rang out, and four bodies dropped to the pavement. Their mangled faces were contorted into permanent masks of fear and weakness. They picked up the bodies and opened the curtain for all to see.

What laid behind was a wooden palette covered in piles of bodies. Rotting corpses that releases a stench capable of bringing up bile, even from an Infected. The bodies were carelessly covered in grey tarp. Some of the bodies looked like they had been laying there all week. The Blackwatch tossed to bodies limply onto the pile and laid a tarp over their bodies. I could see a limp arm sticking out the side. I heard screams of terror. But I followed orders, turned back around, and kept working. Inside my soul, I wanted to turn and gun down each and every Blackwatch I saw, and I still do.

Back to the point on hand. We were headed through the business area, when our squad leader stood up among us. "Now I know this is dangerous, and some of us might not make it back, but I want you to know that we Marines will live on. One day, we still step out from under the shadow of the Blackwatch. Before we land, I want to reiterate that I hope you all join me in the next couple of days against Blackwatch."

I looked around, confused. Rebellion? "Sir, if I may, I would like to point out how much heavier Blackwatch is armed. They are a worldwide organization."

"Yes, but government groups all over the world are rebelling. Blackwatch has been treating the people like animals in New York, and their doing the same thing everywhere else. That stops, starting with us."

The other Marines cheered in agreement as I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Looking out the right side window, I thought I saw a Brawler crawling on the side of a skyscraper, but it was gone. "Weird." I said to myself. Then a skyscraper flashed by, only a few feet away from our chopper. "Are you sure that's the best thing?" I asked the pilots.

"Listen recruit." The copilot started. "We are trained professionals. You don't need to worry you're little head about a thing." At that precise moment, a large, fleshy pink, four legged beast latched onto the hull.

"Brawler!" Someone screamed. In a blur of motion, the chopper swayed heavily to the left and bounced off the already too close skyscraper. It had four claws on each foot, dozens of sharp, mismatched teeth, and beady, red iris eyes that stared hungrily at the Marines inside. It was hanging onto the copilot's, or right side of the chopper. It roared loudly.

The copilot checked the chopper status, then said, "Fuel tank's leaking and the rotor's grinding. We're losing altitude!" The entire chopper started to dip forward. The Brawler didn't notice, and instead continued scratching at the glass.

"Shoot it with something! Now!" the leader yelled out. Turning to us and grabbing the railing along the top, he yelled, "Brace yourselves!" A low _thud _sounded through the chopper as a rocket shot out from the pod. It spun through the air and turned back towards the Brawler.

I gripped by rifle tighter as I asked the pilots, "What are you doing?" The copilot turned back towards me.

"The guns won't turn in enough to shoot it." The chopper was dropping towards a five story business building. The missile narrowly missed the Brawler and turned tightly to try again. But it turned too tightly, exploding into the directional propeller. Shards of metal flew through the air. With a small fire and trail of smoke, the chopper descending at an even faster rate. The Marines inside spoke out several explicit things.

Sliding open the side door, I said. "Let me take care of this." Leaning out, I stared the four legged bastard down through my sites. Hanging on to the top rail with my left hand, I closed one eye. Pulling the trigger, the sound burst attracted the Brawler's attention. Turning his head slightly, the bullet jellified its left eye before entering the already murky brain and further damaging it. Instinctively, the Brawler grabbed onto its eye and dropped. I got back in, closed the eye, and wiped both Infected blood and eye bits off my suit and FAL. My fellow Marines stood and patted my back, congratulating me.

Just as they were all surrounding me, the chopper slammed into and slid across the roof. My group jolted forward and landed on the floor of the chopper. About halfway through, the vehicle tipped to the right. One wing flew off, and a pair flew through the air. The Brawler rolled across the roof and stopped, stunned by my actions.

With only one left, the chopper corpse slid off the roof. With bloody hands, we tried to get to our seats. Some started floating in the air. I looked out the shattered glass bubble front to see grey concrete. As my vision flashed to black, I could hear the thunder of concrete crumbling and metal crumpling.

**10 minutes later…** My eyes opened to a hazy scene. I was in the doorway between the cockpit and the benches. The whole chopper was toppled over on its side. I looked up to see severely warped metal and a flaming control panel. _I guess I won't be calling for more help._ Above and below me sat the pilots, soaked in their own blood. Glass shards were laced throughout their corpses. They leaned forward limply, one still with his seatbelt on. I heard the crunch of glass under my heels as I stood up. The crackling of fire was the only thing pushing me forward.

I looked up at the rest of my unit. My unit leader stood frozen in place. The top rail impaled him, entering his open mouth and out between his legs. Dried blood caked his face, clothes, and the pole. I felt the cool metal with a bare hand. The cool metal was probably warm compared to the age of his corpse. I didn't want to touch that though. Two others had impacted each other at high speeds, one man's helmet smashing the woman's jaw into her skull. Shining white, yet bloody teeth littered the floor around her corpse along with skull bits. Apparently her trigger finger went wild. The man's torso look it was turned into a gruesome version of the game board, Aggravation. Spent shells were scattered with the FAL still pressed against his chest.

Two bodies laid on top each other, the bottom one heavily mangled to the point, I couldn't really even recognize it as a corpse at first. What did the top one in was a chopper blade that fell through the glass and through both of their hearts. The kill zone. I heard groaning outside. I grabbed up a duffel bag and placed their rifles in the bag. I grabbed up several extra clips and also gently pulled the grenade launcher off the rack it sat on in the chopper with the extra clip. I carefully wrapped my fingers around the edges of the blade. I'd have to get it out before I could. Pressing my boot against the top body's chest.

"Come on. Get out of there." I breathed out to myself. I grunted loudly, managing to pull it from the body and push it up out of the chopper. I heard it clatter and bang against the chopper. Then, in one terrifying cluster, the blade crashed onto the ground. I grabbed the handle and walked to the back of the chopper, hearing the door squeal and screech all the way. I picked up the duffel bag, slung it over my right shoulder, and grabbed my FAL. Holding onto the top, I slowly pulled myself out of the chopper.

"Oh… fuck," were the words that came out of my mouth. The chopper had crashed into a gas station convenience store. The entire store was trashed. Toppled shelves laid all over, blocking the freezer section. Infected completely the view of the pumps through the windows, their faces almost comically pressed against the glass. As if they were little kids staring at a piece of candy in a vending machine they wanted. Of course, I was that piece of candy. Then I remembered something I heard before. _The gas tank's leaking. _The flames from control panel were spreading, and my boots were soaked in gas. _I gotta get moving. NOW._

I had no intentions of going out into that cluster of walking body bags. A breeze blew in from the hole above me, nudging a dead cable against my shoulder. Looking up, I saw the dark clouds choking out any chances of sunlight. The long blade extended across the gap with a cord dangling down from it. My hands gripped the cord tightly. Making my way up, a drop of rain hit my forehead. I could feel the flames under my feet. _Keep going. _I told myself.

Wrapping my hand around the dull side of the blade, I pulled myself up onto the blade. I balanced myself on the blade and started taking slow steps. I can feel a case of Vertigo coming on. _Please not now. Just go away. _Then my foot felt concrete. I made it. I then ran across the roof and jumped away from the building. Landing on top of a moving truck, I turnedaround to see the convenience store turn a bright orange. BOOM! The glass blew out the windows and fireballs of corpses flew away. A curling fireball twisted and crawled into the sky. Several car alarms started to go off.

Infected from all over the block jolted my way. I heard several howls as they started my way. Some were running, most were walking. Rounds started cracking as bodies started dropping. However, only being one, with nowhere to go left me getting surrounded. I kept my gun up though and kept shooting. I made sure that every bullet hit something. _Crack! _An Infected received a bullet in the site on its stomach. It grabbed it, then slowly dropped to the ground. Then, instead of a crack, I heard a _Click! _I reached into my bag and grabbed a clip. An Infected grabbed my arm in the bag. I swung with my gun in hand, driving the barrel into his skull. He dropped to the ground with puss dribbling out his head. With myself distracted with my gun, the same Brawler jumped down, landing behind me.

I started to turn around, but he grabbed me and lifted me to his mouth. His jaws opened wide, revealing thick, slimy saliva. Finally getting my rifle reloaded, I pointed it at his open mouth. A bullet soared into the back of his throat. Blood pooled in the back of its throat and onto its tongue. It instinctively bit down in pain. My right shoulder just happened to be in those jaws too. My head reared back as I howled in pain like a wolf at the full moon. With its teeth sunk into my arm, I could feel my head starting to grow weary. Blood poured like a broken water pipe under a street. I could also feel his blood mixing with mine and entering my body. Why did I have to shoot him?

Not only was I wounded, but his blood would infect me. Tasting his own blood, the Brawler spat me out, leaving me to turn and fade into darkness. Laying on the grime covered street, I could also feel dirt start to work its way into my system. The other Infected around me actually left me alone, waiting for me to join them. It was all they ever wanted. Another friend to play with in the everlasting pain of defeat. I can almost feel the virus puncturing my cells, turning them into bombs of infection, waiting to ruin me. My vision grew hazy as I looked through the moving legs. My breathing grew heavy. I saw a familiar structure, kinda reminded me of the dorms at Kadic.

"I was almost there," I said between heavy breaths. I started getting a heavy case of double vision. Colors faded from blue to green to purple and back to normal. Everything felt like it was swirling in a tea cup of torture. I laid on the ground convulsion and vomiting blood. I grew weaker to the point I could move by body voluntarily anymore. Breathing slowly and shallowly, I gasped out, "I'm going to die here." Then, I found a new strength. Standing up weakly, my eyes slowly turned to my right shoulder. The tooth marks had faded away. The blood stopped, but my arm was still fairly weak. After rolling it around, I had it ready to go. I don't even know where the strength came from.

Then, I took my first step. "But I won't die alone!" I screamed. An Infected tried to slap me, but I grabbed the arm, broke it in the wrong direction, and in one punch, puss spewed into the air. The Brawler looked my way again. He charged through and killed multiple Infected. He stopped, then leapt in my direction again. I rolled forward under the attack. Then, I swept his legs.

With him on his belly, I jumped up and punched the back of his head. He stood back up and started clawing at me. I jumped and kicked him in the head. He fell onto his back and held tightly to his head. "I must avenge them. All of them!" It stood up and howled into the rain. Lightning cracked through the sky, as if God himself was responding in anger. I pulled my leg back and then kicked with all my might. The Brawler doubled over and stuck a hand out in pain. I grabbed that hand and tugged. The beast's eyes grew wide with pain as the arm popped out of joint.

"I'm going to tear you apart!" I heard bones breaking, meat tearing, and then the arm followed. It howled out again. My screams of anger blasted over those growls of anguish. Jumping into the air, I brought the arm down upon its head. Breaking its skull in, I felt new, alive, ready to fight again. Then I felt a new pain. It surged through my back, and through my legs and arms. It even ripped up my spine and around my head. It racked my brain with a headache like none other.

I opened my mouth wide to catch more air. Then the pain surged away from the rest of my body, and into the back of my throat. I felt both something warm, and something cool rise up my throat. Then I felt a liquid on my chin. My hands touched my chin and rose to my eye level. It was a black goo that came out of my mouth.

I looked at my shaking hand. I couldn't believe that that was coming out of me. What's wrong with me? I looked back up at the corpse, mouth still agape from the pain still crawling up my throat. "What is this pain in my-" _SNAP! _My head whipped back as a massive black tendril shot out of my head. It arced into the air, then shot down into the head of the corpse and wormed through the corpse. I could feel it continuing go through the body and violently shooting out of my mouth. My eyes squinted as the tendril then shot out the severed arm's shoulder. Then the whole thing glowed red. I could feel energy and probably something else surge from its body to mine.

The tendril returned to my body as I doubled over. An Infected scratched my left cheek. In a burst of what I think is energy, I spun around. My balled up my fist and threw a light punch. The head of the infected nearly jellified as the body was tossed into the air. I looked at my bloodstained hand. Some sort of black mass had grown over my forearms, as well as my calves.

As well as all these powers, a newfound flood of memories forced their way into my brain. I knew… everything about Blackwatch and Gentek. I'm a bomb. A weaponized pathogen, evolving every day. I was no longer human, yet I wasn't yet a monster. I… I saw things that tore my mind apart. I was a one in a million chance. But no one would understand my trials. I'm an un-aging, immortal. I need to use this power to end it. The infection must end with me. I can help them, my friends, the people of the world. I just need to get running.

With a newfound 'gift,' I darted down the street. Running faster than the speed limit, I left spider web cracks on the street. Every Infected that came into contact with my lightning fast fists went flying off onto the sidewalk and through shop windows. "Must…reach…Kadic. I have to reach my friends. A pile of cars and other metal scrap stood in my way. I planted my hands on a car hood, which buckled quickly. My feet went into the air. Pushing with my powers, the car tipped over and I landed on my feet, crackling the street around me. I looked up at the gate that locked me out for so long. The grease was gone, and the gate was boarded shut with enough space for gun barrels to stick out. Also, some of the barbed wire was missing off the roof with some bricks.

"I just hope someone's left inside." I ran along the wall to the bare spot. _I bet I could climb this. _I planted a foot into the wall and stepped. Without missing a beat, the next foot stepped onto the wall. I thought my hands would grip the wall, but I was running perpendicular to the wall. In two more steps, I was standing on top of the wall. "How did I do that?" Looking into the courtyard, I didn't see a soul. The campus was bare, except for a small trail of blood that led to several corpses before heading for the science building.

"Better check that out…" I said to myself under my breathe. I jumped down. "How do I turn this stuff off?" There's no way I'm gonna let anyone see me like this. Maybe it works by electrical impulse. _Go away. _I thought to myself. The mass turned back to black tendrils and retreated back into my flesh. It didn't really hurt, as if my nerve endings had died in that part of my body.

I jumped down and crouched on the ground. Then a rustling stirred from the tree above me, without there being a breeze. Looking straight up, a heard a familiar, female voice squeak with terror. Then the rustling intensified as she fell out of the tree. Landing in front of me was a dark skinned girl in a yellow shirt, green shorts, with dark hair that was braided. In her hand, she held a camcorder. "Tamiya?" I asked with surprise. "Did you video that?"

"I didn't see anything through the leaves." I grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Plus my camera's dead. What happened you didn't want on video?"

"Don't worry your little head about it. Where's the others?"

"Why are you in camo?"

"I'm part of the Marine unit that answered the signal."

"Where's the helicopter?"

"It crashed and only I survived. Now where are the other students?" Tamiya pointed towards the science building.

"The only people I know survived the monster first attacking were chased by it."

"That doesn't make sense. The survivors are the ones chased?"

"Yeah, while it started chasing people, the ones attacked already started biting other people. I hid in the tree so they couldn't reach me." She put her fingers to her lips, thinking. "I know Aelita, Jeremy, and Jim went up to the roof to rig a radio off the cell phone tower."

"Thanks, you should come with me though for protection." I told her this as I unzipped the bag.

"That's a lot of guns in there."

"Yeah, I got them for others to use that I found. Take one." I handed her an FAL and a few extra clips. "Don't go shooting yourself." I added for good measure.

"Can you do something for me?" She asked, looking at the gun in her hands. "I want you to find Millie for me, even if she's infected or dead. I saw her running off to the science building."

"Sure. Let's go over there." We walked together. Considering most of the school was probably infected, I didn't really see anyone. I saw some dead bodies, but the Infected were nowhere to be seen. Coming upon the building, the front glass doors had been smashed open. Then I heard a scream from within. It sounded male, yet high pitched. "Come on." I whispered to her as our shoes crunched over the shattered glass. I silently sped down the hallway, following the sound of two more screams. The halls were beige with white tiles on the ground. Turning the corner, I entered the first room on the right.

A chalkboard sat in the front of the room with a standard teacher's desk. The different desks were thrown across the room, papers strewn across the floor. Several dead bodies of familiar faces were scattered across floor. In the back corner, a Brawler was bending over something. Its shadow cast from the outside light blocked whatever it was. The Brawler was so intently focused on the corner, drool pooled onto whatever it was. In a very low voice, I whispered, "Hide behind teacher's desk Tamiya." She nodded in conformation and then ducked behind the desk. "Hey you!" I yelled. The Brawler slung saliva across the room as its head whipped towards me. "Yeah, you, ya fat fucker! Let's dance." It charged towards me. Pulling the trigger, a bullet spliced its eye like a well-placed scalpel during frog dissection.

It reared back and howled. Its shadow moved away long enough for me to get a catch a glimpse of something purple, something red, and something blue. I knew I was looking at Odd and two others. It charged straight towards me, and I ran down the hallway out of sight. The Brawler followed me.

Turning to face it, the tendrils returned to my arms and legs. It swiped at my face and I ducked. Then I put one foot on its chest to push off. Pulling a backflip, the other smashed its lower jaw into its skull. Its head lashed back, then it leapt. Rolling under it, I then bent back and grabbed its wounded head. Pulling a move straight off WWE, I jumped and fell onto the ground. Its head smashed into the tiles. It grabbed my leg and held me up. I punched its gut, forcing it double over. Grabbing its legs, I threw my weight around, it landing on its back and me on its spine, severing it. The beast gave a dying yelp, then fell limp on the ground. Standing up and ending the power, I ran back to the room. Now standing in the middle of the room was Odd, who walked with a limp. Holding onto his left arm was Emily, using a shotgun to lean on. On Odd's right arm, Hiroki held onto it tightly.

Tamiya had come out from behind the desk and was interrogating Odd. "Where is she?" Tamiya started.

"I'm telling you Tamiya," Odd answered. "She was in the back of the group, so I pushed her to the side before the Brawler could grab her. I don't know where she went. I did hear her yell something about going to the dorms, but I don't know what she'd be doing there." I entered the room and tapped Tamiya's shoulder.

She whipped around in surprise. "You're alive?"

"Yeah, it's not like that's the first one I've fought. What's with the limp Odd? Don't tell me he got you?" I took the duffel bag and placed it down on the teacher's desk.

"No, I was running from that thing, tripped up and sprained my ankle. What you got in there?" Odd asked as the others helped him over. I zipped open the bag. As the flaps opened wide, Odd's jaw dropped at the sight of several FAL's and a grenade launcher. "Dude, where you get this stuff?"

"When you're a Marine, you have your ways." I said.

Hiroki pulled out a FAL and a few clips. "I thought you guys only carried one gun. Where did these come from?"

I walked over to the door. "As a great man once said, I'd rather not talk about it. You guys should head to the roof. I'll take a look for Millie in the dorms."

Tamiya hugged me tightly. "Thank you." I blushed a little bit, then headed into the hallway. I took a careful step over the Brawler corpse, then heard a squishing sound behind me. Whipping around, I saw Hiroki with a FAL following close behind me.

"I thought you'd be following me."

Hiroki started to look confused. "How would you know that?"

"Because I'm looking for Millie."

Hiroki blushed at that before responding, "I just want to kill a bunch of Infected, for Yumi's sake."

"Why would you say that?" I said with concern both on my face and in my voice. "Wouldn't she have called you?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm worried. I haven't heard from her. Plus, every day, we would hear people yelling for help, but Delmas didn't let us near the gate."

"Weird." I answered as we passed the cafeteria.

Hiroki looked that way, then said. "He acted really strange, even to the point we got rid of him. The cafeteria is where he made us all stay. I remember one kid that got clawed by the monster ran off over there."

With a grim look on my face, I answered, "I guess we shouldn't check it out then. If one kid got over there, I'm sure the rest are Infected too."

Then I heard a gunshot, which caught both of our attention. It came from the roof of the cafeteria. Getting closer, we could into the windows, which only showed Infected walking around in the place. They were ignoring us though. Instead, they were all walking towards a roof access hatch in the room. A person sky blue shirt with pinkish pants could be seen. "That's Millie!" Hiroki yelled. We ran around the side to an old dumpster and climbed onto it. I gave him a boost onto the roof, then grabbed the edge. Pulling myself up, I caught a glimpse of Hiroki running and hugging Millie. "I'm so happy you're safe."

"Thanks." Millie said. They were both blushing with awkwardness. I climbed up and walked beside Hiroki.

Millie's blushing face turned an even deeper shade of red. "Ulrich…" She said as she walked towards me.

"Hey Millie." I said with a touch of uncertainty in my voice. "We need to get to the roof of science building."

She looked down towards the ground. "What's wrong?" Hiroki asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I just need to run by my dorm and grab something."

I looked directly into her eyes. "What could be that important?"

"I just need it, okay?"

"Fine. Let's get it and go." I said as turned towards the edge. I leapt down into the dumpster, followed by Hiroki and Millie.

I ran to the dorms and up the first flight of stairs to the girls dorm. No infected in here. Then again, Delmas probably kept them locked up in the cafeteria. _What happened to them while I was gone? _I thought to myself. I stood by the doors and waited for Millie and Hiroki to pass. Now bringing up the rear, I followed behind them as she looked for her room.

"Here it is." She said as she opened the door. The three of us stepped in and I closed the door. Directly after the latch clicked into place, I heard the roof creak.

"What was that?" Hiroki asked with a worried look on his face. Millie opened the drawer under her bed and pulled a brown lump out. Looking at it, it was a dark brown teddy bear with black button eyes and a red bowtie.

"I remember that thing." I said to myself. Then out loud, "We came here just for that?"

Millie held it tightly. "You don't understand how much this thing means to me. I remember having it by my side at night, years ago. I talked my problems into it and it made me feel better. It's just kind of a memento to the life I used to know."

Hiroki chimed in, "I think that's sweet."

I opened my mouth to say more, but a loud bang on the door stopped us all. Then a clawed hand smashed a hole in the door. "Brawler!" I yelled. Millie and Hiroki approached the window and looked down.

"I'm not jumping." They said in unison. I looked out as the hole behind me grew larger.

"There's a bush down there and we don't have much choice." Millie and Hiroki started to protest, but I grabbed them and jumped. We screamed the whole way down, bouncing off the bush and rolling on the ground. The Brawler jumped out after us. Roaring as it fell, it then met with a grenade in the face. Having been blown back into the building, I grabbed them again and started towards the science building.

Then the Brawler leaned back and howled, attracting all the Infected in the cafeteria. I looked off to my right to see the windows smashed and doors brought down. Infected ran out and surrounded us on all sides. "We're trapped." Millie said, holding her bear tight and tears filling her eyes. Hiroki held her tightly and the Brawler grabbed them both.

"No!" I yelled. As if to taunt me, it opened its maw and drool dropped down into Hiroki's hair, as well as on Millie's bear.

"Do something…" Hiroki whispered in fear. _I know I won't like it, but I have to do it to save them._ I thought to myself. I breathed deeply, then exhaled. As I breathed out, the tendrils formed the Muscle Mass around my arms and legs. I started forward, but Infected surrounded me and started to hold me back.

"No! Let them go!" I screamed in protest, but the Brawler seemed to just mock me. It leaned back lifted Millie over its head. "Stop! Please!" I begged with the beast, but it only took further pride in its prize. It threw Hiroki into the cafeteria with a sickening crash followed by letting Millie go. She screamed as the beast swallowed her whole, right on the spot. It leaned forward onto all fours, licking its jaws. It coughed a couple times as if it had a hairball, then spit out the brown teddy bear. Covered in slime, it slid across the ground and stopped at my feet. Then, it seemed to almost smile with pleasure. I dropped to my knees and grabbed the teddy bear. "No… this… this isn't real. It can't be." I lifted it to my face. Even covered in drool, I could still make out the smile stitched into its face.


	3. A New Reign of Terror

**AN: I forgot to say this before, but the 'Marine Revolution' isn't exactly a real thing in the games. However, when disguised as a Marine or civilian, you can walk near them and listen to their conversations. This works best with a Gaming Headset. Marines will often talk about their concern and anger towards the Gentek presence and treatment of people by Blackwatch. Try it out. I can't remember exactly, but I remember it happening especially in the Yellow Zone in the second game.**

Chapter 2: A New Reign of Terror

I looked into the eyes of the bear. Then my eyes glanced at the cafeteria. Finally, my glare locked onto the Brawler, who had turned around and started walking away. My blood boiled with rage, my eyes filled to the brim with hate, my arms hungered for the taste of blood, and my soul burned with malice. My arms flexed quickly, tearing away the arms of the many Infected that had held me back. I crouched down, until I felt the tendrils fuse with my muscles. Before I jumped, I placed the bear under my jacket. I leapt several yards into the air, landing on the Brawler's back. It reared back like an enraged bull. My pointer finger dug into one eye, the ring into the other. It immediately got back down, hoping I would stop.

Instead, I ripped out my fingers with full force, it's eyes coming along with my hand. Flicking my hands, the eyes shot out across the campus grounds and splattered on the pavement. It began to run in random directions, arriving in the forested region near the old manhole. It reared back, giving me the chance to grab its arms and twist them at odd angles. The beast fell back forward, incapable of moving from the pain and forced position. "You think it's fun to toy with other's lives? As if the actions you do won't catch you? Like there are no consequences, because how can you pick out one Brawler among potentially hundreds? I can you bastard. And you're not getting away from me."

Still holding its arms back, I jumped about a foot in the air and shifted my weight to one side. My heel smashed into its skull, crushing it as well as severing it. I landed in front of the monster with the headless corpse falling right after me. One step after the other, I ran up the nearest tree. Reaching the top, I could only pray that it would work. I jumped off, pulled a backflip, and landed feet first on the lower abdomen of the Brawler. A lump developed in the Brawler's stomach, and rose to its throat. "Come on!" I screamed as I slammed my fists just below the lump again.

This time, the body of a weakened girl squirted out the throat hole. Her clothes were slightly worn and she had a few burns on her body. Her hand was twitching and I could barely see her breathing. I picked her up out of the excess slime and looked at her weakened form. The poor girl. As if living through whatever hell Delmas forced them through was bad enough. Now, she'd seen both the horrors of Infection first hand and the insides of a Brawler. I carried her out of the woods and onto the campus. Getting out onto campus, I saw quite a few Infected had been shot down, and most had disappeared. I looked up at the roof. Jim sat on top of the roof access structure on top of the building. He held the grenade launcher in his hands.

He'd seen the whole thing.

I waved my arms to get his attention and yelled, "Get somebody down here to get Millie! I'm going to check on Hiroki!" He responded by sticking his arm out with a thumbs up. Then he turned his head and spoke to someone. Soon enough, the door opened and Aelita ran out to me.

"Ulrich! What's with the getup?"

"I'll explain later. Carry Millie upstairs onto the roof and make sure she's still breathing." She nodded and took Millie from my hands. Ever since 11th grade, Aelita had become like a second mother to most of the kids. When she really started to understand life on earth again, people opened up to her. Trusted her. And she only responded with kindness and a sort of motherly love. She started carrying her away as I turned to get Hiroki.

I still remembered how annoying he was years ago. After turning 15, he started to mature pretty well. He got along better with a lot of us. He was like a little brother to me. He looked up to me all the time. It was his way of trying to convince Yumi into a relationship with me. They had always been close. I didn't want anything to happen to him. Now I can only hope that he's not dead, or badly mutilated, or worse, Infected. I sprinted over to the cafeteria, leaving spider web cracks in the ground with every step. I climbed over the wall to see the cafeteria a wreck. Several garbage bins were turned over, empty. Tables were all against the wall with pillows on one end. Chairs sat either in splinters, or at least toppled over. Several dead bodies were scattered around the room, smoke still pouring from their wounds.

Against a wall sat Hiroki. Shadows hid most of his body, but blood was splattered against the wall. His blue shirt was stained with blood. An Infected body laid on the ground in front of him. The FAL was still shaking in his hands. I approached him carefully. "It's just me Hiroki."

Hiroki kept staring at the dead body. "I killed him Ulrich. He was my friend, and I shot him dead." I glanced down at the body he was staring at. The kid had long, brown hair. He wore a red sleeved baseball T-shirt. A distinctive nose that was rather large and big, brown eyes gave away his identity. Hiroki just had to shoot Johnny. Johnny was dropped by a bullet from his friend, his probable only friend.

"Listen Hiroki, we have to go. I'm sorry about what happened, but we need to go."

"Why? I've lost everything and everyone." Hiroki said this as he looked up into my eyes.

"Is that what your sis would want? No. She'd slap you across the face and throw you back into the fray. And that's what I'm gonna do." I reached for his other arm. But didn't touch anything. "Come on. You gotta work with me. Show me your hand."

Hiroki looked off to his right and pointed with his gun. "I think it landed somewhere over there." My eyes widened as I turned my flashlight on. His arm was in fact not attached to his body. Looking to my left, I saw it had landed on the serving counter.

I slowly turned back to him with a straight face. As soon as my eyes looked at the stump that went about 1/3 of the way down his arm, I frantically screamed, "What the fuck happened?"

Hiroki used his FAL as a prop and stood up. "When that thing threw me, I hit the metal post between windows. It took my arm off so fast, I almost didn't feel it. Then Infected started to run in after me, including Johnny." He said this with tears welling up in his face.

I ran over and grabbed his arm off the table.

"What are you going to do with that?" He asked walking towards the door.

"Well, if this works like I think it does, Or at least how it does with organs, we can get it in a cooler, ice it down, and keep it fresh for reattaching."

Hiroki walked over to me. "As much as I would like to help," he raised his gun up. "I think I'll just cover you while you take care of it." I ran over into the kitchen and grabbed a cooler from the back. Then getting to the freezer, I started scooping ice into the cooler.

While doing that, I spoke to Hiroki. "You aren't reacting the way I'd expect you to after losing your arm."

"After the hell I've experienced over the last couple weeks, this is just another nail in the coffin."

"Jeez, what kind of things did he do?" I asked as I placed his arm in the cooler and buried it under more ice.

A small smirk crawled across his face. "I'd rather not talk about it." I grabbed some paper towel and wrapped his stump up. "Is that all you're going to do?"

"That's all I can do for now." We ran outside and made our way into the science building. Still running, I carried his arm up the stairs and out onto the roof.

The entire surviving crew turned to face me. Millie lied down on the roof, her breathing stabilizing. Jeremy had grabbed some boards and tape to set Odd's ankle. Emily ran over and grabbed Hiroki, who exclaimed to be getting lightheaded. My wrap wasn't very good, but it would hold. "Where's the radio?" Jeremy pointed over to the tower. He had built some device to let him send a signal with a police radio mic plugged into it.

I ran over and grabbed it. "Hello? Is anybody there? I repeat, do you respond?"

"This is Yellow Zone Rescue Dispatch. Where are you?" The voice was surprisingly female.

"We're at Kadic Academy." I looked around and counted heads. "I've got 9 confirmed. Send a chopper immediately."

"We sent a chopper a while ago. Please hold while we contact it."

"That won't help. I'm PFC Stern. I was part of that rescue. A Brawler brought the chopper onto the ground. I was the only survivor."

"Why didn't you respond?"

"The chopper's control panel was ablaze and it exploded minutes later. I managed to reach the school, and we need a chopper without soldiers, but a few doctors. We've got injured."

"Infected injured?"

"No, one with a possibly broken ankle from running, a teenage male with a severed arm from being thrown, and a girl with burns on her body."

"Copy that. Sending a chopper, ETA 10 minutes." The line died then. Turning to the rest, I asked, "How about you guys explain things while we wait."

Jeremy and Aelita looked at each other with concerned faces. Emily looked back down at Hiroki. Millie simply cringed on the ground, mentally scarred. Jim got down and walked over towards the rest. Tamiya looked at the camcorder, twiddling her thumbs. Odd scooted forward, then looked into my eyes. "I'll tell you." He propped himself with a shotgun and a yardstick he'd found. "It started right after the front gates closed. I was setting a barricade at the dorms with a couple people when Jim came by."

Jim spoke up. "I told him that Principal Delmas wanted to see them in the cafeteria. I didn't know what he planned."

Jeremy pushed his glasses up to his face. "When we got in there, he slammed the doors shut and locked us in. He yelled out, 'We're staying here until the military comes to us.'"

Hiroki rubbed his hand on the cooler. "He set up beds with the tables and chairs. We laughed in his face, as if we'd stay in there."

Aelita stood up. She pulled he sleeve up, revealing a poorly made gauze and cotton setup on her arm. "Then, without thought, he pulled the trigger. He shot me in the arm. Then he said, 'next person gets it in the head.'"

"That shut us all up quick." Jim said. "Then I realized I was the only teacher other than Delmas inside. The others were out who knows where."

"He told us that we weren't to leave." Tamiya said, holding Millie's hand. "It's like he was a whole different person."

Odd looked across the roof. "I thought I was going." The others just shrugged their shoulders. "That's what I thought. Anyway, Delmas only got weirder. Every night when he forced us to go to sleep, he was awake. When we awoke, he was already awake. I once woke up from a nightmare, and Delmas was still up, sitting in his chair, gun pointed straight at me. He also didn't ration our food supply. We ran out in about a week. We got so hungry, we actually ate from the trash."

"That was disgusting." Aelita said. "But we didn't have a choice. He was constantly on the watch, threatening to kill us all when we stepped out of line."

"Even his own daughter." Emily said this, placing a sweat doused rag on Hiroki's head to keep his head cool. "He straight up put his pistol against her head and said, "I'll do it. Get back in line, or I'll do it. Daughter or not, I rule this place, and you aren't getting any exceptions."

"Just this morning, we convinced Jim to help us escape." Jeremy said. "He distracted Delmas by giving some guy a fork, which he immediately stabbed into the girl next to him. He was so hungry, he actually started to dig out a chunk of the girl's thigh and ate it."

Jim then walked up to Odd. "I smashed open the door and ran. A bunch of kids followed me onto the grounds. Then we heard metal clinking. The barbed wire was torn down by some big, meaty monster. It charged straight towards us. I helped Jeremy and Aelita towards the science building."

Odd leaned on Jim's shoulder. "Delmas started back towards the cafeteria. He pushed kids to the ground, which that thing gladly tore into. He even pushed his own daughter down. She screamed, 'Daddy!' but his only response was to run. We watched Delmas ultimately kill his own daughter. We all heard her blood curdling screams. Enough was enough. Somebody tackled him to the ground. Grabbing his gun away, he shot Delmas in the knee caps and ran. That monster trailed blood after us as we ran into the science building."

Hiroki then continued, "We got into the building, when Odd stepped wrong and twisted his ankle. Taking refuge in a room, we laid on the ground and played dead. That thing came in and sniffed us, then started to walk away."

Emily looked into my eyes. "I accidentally put my hand on Odd's tender ankle, and he yelped. That gave our position away, and that's where you came in."

Just then, the chopper blew in over the roof. Jim started to carry Odd while Tamiya and Hiroki comforted Millie as she stood and started walking forward. I picked up the cooler with his arm and waved the chopper down. It lowered just above the ground, doors sliding open. Two Gentek field scientists in hazmat suits came out, grabbing Millie and Hiroki. I helped Odd onto the chopper while the rest piled on.

As we started to lift off, two hands grasped tightly to the under railing. They led to a brown jacket with an old man hanging on. Blood dripped off his legs. "What's that?" The copilot yelled looking back.

I wanted to say it was Delmas, but when I looked at the others, they looked at Delmas with eyes full of malice. "It's just some Infected. I'll take care of it."

Delmas looked at me with narrow eyes. "You wouldn't dare." He said so that only I could hear him.

I looked straight back at him. "I've wanted to do this for almost 8 years." I lifted my boot into the air, then kicked him in the face. He fell easily ten stories. His screams echoed through the air. His bruised face slammed into a parked taxi below. The canopy buckled in as his neck snapped. His carcass flopped down and rolled off the car onto the pavement. I then slid the door shut and turned back to face satisfied looks.

"Oh no. This is no good." One of the Gentek scientists said. He had Hiroki's arm in his hands. "I'm sorry boy, but this arm is no good."

"What do you mean?" Hiroki said, waving his stump through the air.

"Look at this." He pointed at the crook of the elbow. There were three teeth marks. "It's been bit, and is no good to reattach. But it will work good in the testing facilities. We will make sure to compensate you for this 'donation'."

Hiroki laid back on his cot. "I might as well just die." The scientist walked over to Aelita. Peering under the bandages, he nodded his head. "This should heal up pretty well." He then walked over to Odd.

The other scientist was looking at her burns. "She should be fine in about a week." Millie only smiled lightly in response.

Odd looked at the scientist. "Is it gonna heal up?"

"Yes. It's just a sprain. You should be fine in a couple days."

"If there's one thing I want to do, it's join the Marines with my friend Ulrich here." He pointed straight at me.

"I'm sure they would accept you after you heal up. You are 18, right? You look kind of scrawny."

Odd gritted his teeth before saying, "I'm not scrawny, I'm _svelte_." The two scientists looked at each other. One shrugged his shoulders while the other snickered lightly.

Emily stood up. "I'm joining too." Jeremy and Aelita looked at each other. They didn't appear interested. It makes sense. Neither one would really last long as a soldier.

Jim leaned back. "I guess I could join back up."

I looked right at Jim. "You were a Marine before?"

"Yeah, but I'd rather not talk about it." Jim said as he waved his hand in disapproval.

"Of course." Odd said. The group gave off a light chuckle. The chopper landed at a base along the southern border of the Yellow Zone. As we piled out, I motioned the three towards a Marine.

"Sir?" I asked politely.

The Marine turned towards me. "Yes?" He asked.

"I have new recruits." I said this, motioning my hands to the three behind me.

"Let's go get them signed up then." He led us into the structure and to the lobby desk.

The secretary looked up at us. "Yes?" She asked.

"New recruits from this Marine here." He answered, pointing at me.

"I'll have you recommended for promotion. You three, come with me." Odd started to limp over. "You'll all be put on patrol duty for now. You won't have to move much, just sit in a truck." She said as the three followed behind her. A few minutes later, they came out in Marine gear. Their urban camo was just like mine, grey and steel blue. I walked over to them. "Let's get on a truck and head out." Emily and I helped Odd outside and onto a truck with two guys already sitting in it. It rolled forward, then turned left onto the road.

"What's life like here?" Emily asked. Odd and Jim looked at me, hoping for a positive answer.

"Well, to be frank, life sucks." I answered. Their faces drooped as I continued. "I've seen men shot for nothing, women taken into alleyways by Blackwatch men, and even innocent children sent to testing facilities so the family can live another month."

"Just sounds terrible." Jim said as he looked into the crowds behind me. I had done the same thing on the first patrol. I looked into their faces, and only got looks of hatred and malice in return. He leaned back and looked at Odd and I.

"It doesn't end there. Our lives are easier. Jeremy, Aelita, and the others will have to live in shacks built by the military. They don't even get electricity and the rent is outrageous. Unless they can get a job within the first couple days, they'll be on the street in a month. If you want electricity, Blackwatch has control of the power grids, meaning it costs outrageously to pay for even light and refrigeration.

The truck passed under a microphone, which belted out the message, "Gentek wants to remind you that your safety is our top concern. You can get a Gentek approved face mask for the low price of 199…99 at the nearest refugee camp."

Odd looked at me funny. "That's outrageous! Who could afford that?"

The Marine sitting next to me leaned forward. "Anyone who wants an open invitation to get mugged."

The truck stopped at the checkpoint. A Blackwatch soldier stood at the vehicle check. He walked up and lifted a photograph to the face of the driver. I couldn't see the picture very well, but the driver nodded and pointed at me. Then the surprisingly female voice of Blackwatch soldier screamed out, "PFC Stern. You are due for Gentek testing."

My eyes grew wide. "What? Why?"

"That information is classified. Come with us quietly, or face the consequences." I looked around. The Blackwatch had me surrounded. I slowly stood up, looking straight into the female's eyes. All at once, I shifted my weight and ran towards the front. "Stop him!" She screamed. I leapt over the other Marines, slid across the roof of the cab, and hit the ground running. Then a gunshot rang out. The bullet struck my calf.

I yelped in pain before dropping to the ground. I started to crawl, but felt my body forcefully rolled over. The Blackwatch soldier standing over me pulled out his rifle, and rammed the butt into the side of my head. I went out cold.

With my vision in all black, a memory started to play in my head. An image of a helicopter with silhouetted soldiers appeared before me. A voice rang out, "The Idaho Runner?"

Another voice said, "No."

"Get Blackwatch on the line. I want two battalions in from Ft. Detrick in 20 hours." The voice paused, and the image changed to a bird's eye view of New York City. "It's starting again." _What's starting again? _I thought to myself. Then, my eyes opened suddenly. I was in a large room with a one way mirror above and in front of me. The room was very white, with several closed gates around me.

Looking down, my Marine outfit had been removed. Instead, I was back in my street clothes. My green jacket was gone, leaving only my lighter green shirt with brownish red pants. For some reason, my shoes had also been stolen, leaving my grey socks.

A voice over the intercom crackled. "Hello PFC Stern. We know what you are."

I looked directly into the mirror. "How?" I screamed.

"Now, now Stern. No reason to get cranky. That won't change things. Also, we've stripped you of everything that could be considered a weapon. That's what we've done with every test subject." The voice paused for a moment before continuing. "We received an anonymous tip from someone who had hacked into the street cameras. They saw you get bit, turn into Gentek property, and tear up a Brawler. We want to see this power for ourselves." With that, a gate behind me opened up. An Infected covered in thick, black callouses covering most of his body stepped in.

"What is that thing?" I asked.

"This is a new variant that has started appearing ever since we created it. We're not sure of its properties, but that's where you come in. Consume it like you did that Brawler." Flames spit up from the ground and down from above, then stopped. "Otherwise, we'll simply roast the both of you." The beast had walked through the flames, and come out without a single burn. "You'll probably die first."

"Fine." I said as I turned to it. Activating my power, the tendrils again coated my arms, Spines shot back and away from my arms on the outside side of each one. Spines also now shot back and up from the back of my calves. I punched it with a normal amount of momentum. The creature's head lashed back, then returned to the front.

"Amazing." One of the doctors said. "It doesn't even seemed phased."

Another voice inside corrected him, saying, "It was phased, but not hurt. Still amazing, yes." I grabbed it and threw it over me. The monster landed on the equipment in the middle of the room. It got up and charged towards me. I sidestepped and grabbed its arm as it ran by. It fell on its back, but still didn't show any signs of injury.

_How do I kill this thing? _Then I noticed something. The armored patches were fluctuating in size. They would grow and retract like a beating heart. If I timed it right, I could catch a bare spot. It ran up close and started to claw at me. Lifting my arms to block, I watched the spots grow, then start to pull back. I reared back my right arm and cranked it into the gut. Hitting armor, I actually felt some pain in my hand as I pulled it back. _This is apparently going to be harder than I thought. _

Punch after punch struck armor as I started stepping back. It kept swiping at me, occasionally catching a scratch on my arms or torso. Just as it tore its claws across my abdomen, ruining my shirt, I ducked down and then jumped with my fist lifted up. My fist struck the bottom of its body so hard, the temporarily unprotected neck simply tore loose. Then black tendrils ripped out of my spine. I doubled over, yelling in pain. The tendrils grabbed the body. Tearing it into chunks, the tendrils retreated into my body with their prize. I reared back and stomped on the ground. Rubble was tossed into the air.

"Take it out!" The intercom screeched. Green smoke poured in from several vents. My vision quickly grew blurry before reducing to zero. As I again blacked out, another memory began to play in my head. An image of a small town park gathering appeared. The clothes of the people looked like the 1960's.

Two people were speaking, as if it were an old recording of an interview. "And what did you tell them?" A voice said.

A voice that sounded like it came from some nerdy scientist spoke out. "We told them we'd insert limited fallout conditions into their water supply. Harmless stuff."

"That was the cover story?" The first voice asked.

The image changed to a bunch of people lining up to a table with men in white lab coats sitting at it. "One of many. People didn't ask questions. They were all happy to help." Then the interview cut to black.

My eyes slowing opened to sound of a jail door slamming. The first thing I saw was a Blackwatch soldier looking down at me. Another one came in from the right. The first turned around and walked towards the other. "So who's next on the list?" The first asked.

"We've got two that need to go." The second one answered they disappeared off to the left. They stopped at a cell a few slots to the left and across the hall. The click of the lock echoed through the empty hall. As the door was jerked open by second, the first one stepped in. I heard screams of denial.

"Just make it easier on yourself." The first one answered.

"But I have a family at home to support." A distinctly male voice said. "Please let me go. What about my children?" The Blackwatch soldier didn't answer. He grabbed him by his shoulders and yanked him off his feet. Then the second one closed the door as they headed off to another room. Probably to another test. After the door slammed behind them, chatter amongst the 'volunteers' started up. A familiar hand carrying a palm sized chunk of mirror stuck out of the cage on my right. After it angled in the person's hand to show each other's faces, my jaw dropped with surprise.

"Ulrich?" the voice asked weakly.

"Yeah, it's me Yumi." I said both with elation and depression dripping off those few words.


	4. The French Revolution of a Modern World

Chapter 3: A New French Revolution

"I thought you were dead." I said.

"I thought the same." Yumi answered. Just seeing her face, let alone hearing her voice brought new life into my body. We had to get out, but how? "How'd you get in here?" She asked.

"I got arrested and they didn't give a reason." I answered. "They knocked me out and the next thing I knew, I woke up in here." She angled the mirror to get a look at the rest of me. I also got to see the rest of her. Her clothes were ragged, hair matted to her head, and like the other prisoners, she didn't have shoes, or socks.

"How'd those claw marks get on you?" I looked down. My shirt had been clawed, but there were no marks, not even a scar. I had managed to heal up completely.

"I had a close call with an Infected, but I managed it out." I lied straight to her face. "How'd you get here? And why don't you have socks?"

"I managed to reach a Red Zone checkpoint. They imported me into the Yellow Zone. After a few days though, I found out how strict the laws were. I was broke and needed food. I was walking down the street a couple days ago when I saw a Blackwatch food truck. Once a day, they would drive to every refugee camp and give out food. I didn't have my ID card saying I was part of a refugee camp. Walking up to the Blackwatch soldier, he asked for my card. I said I didn't have it on me, but I would show it tomorrow." She stopped in order to take a breath. "He laughed in my face. This was partially my fault, but I punched him in the nose and grabbed a plate. Of course, I was tackled immediately and moved to this place." She said this, motioning her hands to the walls.

"As for the socks, you know how they take away everything that could be used as a weapon?" She asked.

"Yeah…" I said, partially confused. Most of the people around me had socks though.

"Yesterday, I took a whole day's worth of food, stuffed it one, and when a guard walked by, I beat him over the head with it. I managed to get his keys off his unconscious body and open my cell. I was almost to freedom when another Blackwatch soldier blocked the exit. I tried to turn around, but he slammed my thigh with the butt of his rifle. I went down grabbing my leg. Then he picked me up and threw me back into my cage." She put her hand on her left thigh. She winced before removing her hand quickly. "Still hurts."

A thought drifted into my head. I remembered my squad leader talking about a Marine revolt. I think they were going to attack hospitals to get medical equipment to the people. "Hey, where is this place?"

"It was a hospital before they took it over."

"Perfect!" I said. "The Blackwatch will be so distracted with what's going on outside, we can make our escape."

"What's happening outside?" Yumi asked.

"You don't need to worry about it for now." We kept talking for a while. I was completely lost in the conversation. Looking into her eyes, I was unable to hear the footsteps of an approaching Blackwatch soldier. Only the sound of his gun barrel hitting the metal bars brought us back to reality. Both our heads snapped to look at a Blackwatch soldier looking down at us.

"It looks like you've broken the rules again, Ms. Ishiyama." Yumi started to pull her arm back, but the soldier caught her by the wrist. I pressed my body against the bars.

"Don't you lay a finger on her." I said as menacingly as I could manage. He seemed to laugh under his mask. He tugged her arm hard. Her head bounced off the iron bars as he then shoved her back into her cell on the ground.

Stepping over, he got eye level with me. My head was pressed against an iron bar. "And what are you gonna do about it?" The other guard walked over and whispered into his ear. He leaned back and kicked the bar my head rested against. The sound of a crowbar on a metal security door echoed through my head and the room. I fell back with an ugly bruise on my forehead. "Let's take her to a test." The first one suggested to the other.

He nodded in agreement. One opened the door and the other grabbed Yumi. "But I'm not scheduled till tomorrow!" She yelled as she felt herself pulled off the ground.

"You just got bumped up the list." The one holding onto the door answered.

"Don't touch her!" I screamed.

The one holding her said, "You can't do nothing behind those bars." I tilted my head down slightly and activated my powers. The three of them froze up in fear. The one with his hands free lifted his rifle up to his shoulder.

"I'll hit you right between your eyes." My eyes narrowed.

"No you won't." I felt new tendrils wrap around my entire body. A suit similar to what had covered the Armored Infected formed around me. It was pitch black and held tightly to my body. The dark material built over my face and pulled back to a point. A shirt collar like structure rose up around my neck to lip level. The soldier pulled the trigger. Three bullets rang out. Each one bounced off my forehead. I pushed forward with all my strength, scattering the iron bars onto the ground. I dropped what remained in my hands and walked towards them. Each step boomed like I was walking in steel toe boots.

"You take her. I'll sound the alarm." The soldier holding Yumi said as he pushed her into the other one's hands. As he grabbed hold of her, he dropped his gun. Pulling out a knife, he held it close to her throat.

"Take another step and she'll be seeing red." Just looking at his body language I could tell he was bluffing. His knees quivered while his voice wavered slightly. I took a small step forward, and he took a larger one back. I kept taking slow steps, him reacting by weakening his credibility. I reached out to him, grabbing his dual bandoliers. Lifting him off the ground with a single hand, he dropped both the knife and Yumi. She landed on her butt with the knife next to her. She looked up into my faceplate, eyes wavering, full of fear. "Wait, I can help you." He said with both hands grabbing at my one.

"You will." I said as I reared my arm back like a baseball pitcher. Kicking my left leg into the air, I leaned forward and threw him at the peak of my swing. He screamed as he rocketed down the hallway. The other guard was against the wall, about to hit the alarm button. He heard the yelling and turned towards me. His partner's body smashed into his at the speed of an MLB pitch. A sickening crackle rang throughout the room as the one against the wall had his ribs crushed into his lungs. The neck of the other one buckled into his torso, shattering his spine and jellifying his brain. One body flopped to the ground motionless as the other fell to his hands and knees, tearing at his mask to stop from drowning in his own blood.

I grabbed him by one wrist with my right hand and lifted him into the air. The only thing he could manage to give off was him gargling to try and get air. Four tendrils shot out from my back. They jabbed into his different extremities. I closed my left hand into a fist and punched into his chest. Grabbing his heart, I ripped it out as my fist exited his back. The tendrils tugged hard, tearing his body into four pieces and pulled them within me. Black tendrils covered my body and forcing my eyes closed.

When it stopped and my eyes opened, I saw everything through a HUD display that had a star with angel wings on it in the top left corner. In the top right corner, a timer was running down to zero with only a couple minutes left. Written under it was 'till shift change.' I had taken the form of a Blackwatch soldier. Picking a rifle off the ground, I turned around to face Yumi. She was on the ground, knife in hand, body shaking. I started walking to her. She scooted back, too fearful to take the time to stand. "Yumi, it's me, Ulrich."

"Wh-what are you?" She asked.

"I'm just another human."

"You're some kind of monster." Yumi said.

"I've just got problems right now is all." I answered with a hint of honesty in my voice.

"That isn't just a phase. What really happened to you?" She asked, standing up. I walked towards her while switching back to my street clothes. My jacket was on as well as my black tennis shoes.

"I was Infected." She gasped and turned to run, but I grabbed her shoulder. "But I'm not like them. My DNA had a natural mutation, making me immune to falling to the Hive Mind's will." I said this as a new memory started playing through my head. It was saying more or less the same thing. It was of some scientist talking about the reason Mercer became the first Prototype.

"Why should I trust you?" She said with her head pointed towards the ground.

"Because you did before you knew the truth. Listen to me though, we need to leave. This shift ends soon and then two more will come down here. If they see you out, a cage broken, and a guard dead, they'll shoot us both on site." She looked up at me, ready to listen.

"What should we do?" She asked.

"I've already taken one guard's form. You take the other's uniform and follow my lead." She complied, stripping the other soldier to his underwear. I lifted the body and dumped it off in Yumi's cell and closed it. She soon pulled the hood over head as two new guards entered the room.

"We're here to relieve you of duty." The one on the left said, who's voice was female.

"It's been one of those days, so could you remind us of what we're doing next?" I asked, my voice had automatically changed to the soldier I had consumed.

"You take our job, so you go outside on guard duty." The male soldier said. I walked past them, as did Yumi. As soon as the door closed behind us, we ran for our lives. Sprinting around corners, we stopped at a set of elevators. Apparently, we were on the 2nd basement level. Yumi started hammering the call elevator button. The other guard's voices started echoing through the hallways.

"Hey! Somebody stop them!" The male soldier yelled from around a couple corners. One elevator door slid open and we slipped inside. The entire inside was silver and slick. I pressed the ground level button, and Yumi started holding the close door button. They came around the corner as the doors shut.

While the elevator rose, I turned to her and said, "As long as we look in place, we should be able to slip out." The doors opened up and we walked out. I held my rifle handle in the left and rested it in the right. Yumi adjusted to match me. We both looked up and straight ahead. We even matched our footsteps. I rolled my shoulders up and back, then she did the same. Looking both formal and unison, we made our way into the lobby.

No one glanced our way, or really even acknowledged us. Opening the glass doors, I looked out into the parking lot. A chain link fence stood way off to our left. A massive concrete barricade wall wrapped around the entire parking lot. Looking at the pavement, there was street access on the opposite side from the chain link fence. Several topless, empty cargo trucks sat in the parking lot on the other side. Some looked like they had stopped to drop off test subjects, others had soldiers under them doing maintenance.

Walking together across the lot, I whispered into her ear. "When I say duck and cover, run behind a truck and change back to your street clothes."

"Got it." Yumi said while we looked both left and right. Then I heard tires screeching and tracks rolling. Looking towards the entrance, several guards had their guns up and were yelling something. Two topless trucks rolled through the fence, flattening the guards standing in front of the fence. They immediately dismounted and hid behind the truck. Then an explosion rang out behind us. Turning back, a freaking TANK had blown a hole in the wall while two more trucks drove in. Those Marines did the same thing.

Amidst the sudden chaos, I called out, "Duck and cover!" Yumi and I hid behind the closest empty truck and Blackwatch troops hid behind what they could. Out of sight, I turned back to my Marine uniform while Yumi took off the Blackwatch uniform. She was wearing her street clothes underneath. I brought up my rifle and crouch walked around the back to joined the Marine pack. I started firing my rifle into the Blackwatch crowd still in the open. Being attacked from two directions, they didn't have far to go.

A low thundering sounded as an Apache chopper flew in overhead, firing missiles. Marines ducked and rolled away as both the missiles struck the tank, leaving only scrap metal and fire behind. Then the chain gun opened up, cutting down several Marines. More trucks began to pile in from behind, feeding more Marines to the kill zone. As the next wave of Marines ducked behind trucks that were well chipped away at, I ran through the open hole with my hand grasped tightly around Yumi's. Going into the alleyway on the other side of the concrete wall, I equipped my armor suit with my Muscle mass power, as I had come to call it. "You stay here." I told Yumi. She nodded, then walked to the wall and sat down.

Running up along the wall, I then jumped over the alleyway with a backflip and kept going up the apartment building on the other side. Reaching the 12th floor, I stood on the roof where two people had managed to get a bonfire and ratty couch onto. As my landing boomed, they were startled over the back of their couch. Without a second look at them, I jumped off the roof, staring straight at the chopper below me.

My hands wrapped quickly around tail of the chopper. It whirled around in the air about ¾ before straightening itself out. I leapt onto the wing that held the missile pods, then onto the side of the glass. I knocked out the pilot and splattered the copilot across the glass. I grabbed the pilot by the throat as the chopper climbed high into the air. Consuming him, a new memory began to play. Several images of a chopper flashed by while a soldier barked out, "You will learn every bit and piece of this vehicle and master it until you can fly with both hands tied behind your back!"

Instantly filled with the knowledge to fly this thing, I grabbed hold of the stick as the chopper started to dive. Holding it only about 10 yards off the ground, I turned towards the Blackwatch and the chain gun opened fire. Bullets quickly began to whittle the cargo trucks along the long wall down to metal shavings. Soldiers ducked in and out of corners to be diced up by both the chopper and the Marines. Then I heard what sounded like another tank. This one came out of the hospital, and fired a round directly at the cockpit. Fire and shattered glass cut into my armored body.

The Apache began to lose altitude as a black trail of smoke followed behind. Still in partial control, I veered the machine down upon the tank. Leaping out and into the shadows, I changed back to my Marine outfit and emerged with my rifle. I stepped around the wreckage and met up with other Marines. "Sorry I'm late for the party."

One Marine looked at me. "The party's just got started. We spotted some sort of Gentek property. It seemed friendly towards us. I'm sure that'll change."

Lining up with a unit missing a man, I asked one of them, "What are we up to?"

"Our unit's going to chase down the base operator. If he escapes, we can't access any security doors, mass release the prisoners, or torch the Infected subjects." The Marine explained this all. Not sure why, but I quickly agreed to join the unit. I looked back at Yumi, who was talking with a Marine that had stopped to help her. She looked towards me and winked.

Going inside, I looked at the lobby I had left a few minutes ago. A Gentek scientist looked straight at me, as if he could straight through my suit to see the me he knew. I slung my rifle strap on my shoulder. He took a few steps back before turning and all out running. I chased him up and down the hall. He stopped to enter a room and got the door closed. I armed my rifle and blasted the lock off the door. Kicking the door open, I entered the room and grabbed the scientist. Pinning him to the wall with both hands, I yelled at him, "Where's the commander?"

Stuttering like a child, he answered, "I-I-I don't know." Another Marine in the unit came by and slapped him across the face. Then he held his rifle against the scientist's head.

"We know you know!" He barked into his ear.

"Fine! Just don't shoot!"

The squad leader walked into the room. "Now we're getting somewhere. What do you know?"

"He's headed for the roof! A chopper's headed for the hospital right now."

The leader nodded his head. I nodded mine and dropped him to the ground. The scientist skittered to his feet and ran towards the exit. Two Marines popped around the corner, grabbing him and tackling him to the ground. One Marine slapped cuffs on him while the other carried him outside.

The leader said, "Alright let's get moving for the roof." We made for the elevator, but it was on lockdown. Neither one would budge. The buttons didn't even light up. The leader stuck his finger into the air and said, "To the stairs!"

Making our way down the hallway, we soon found the door with a red sign over it. The sign read _Fire Stairs. _Opening the door, several flights of stairs twisted into the air. The building was easily 10 stories tall. The concrete walls were covered in graffiti symbols from rival gangs and general vandalism. Skipping steps the whole way, we made our way to the 7th floor when bullets started shooting down the stairwell. It was a tight square set up and we were sitting ducks. One Marine standing next to me screamed, dropped, and rolled down the steps with a bullet in his knee.

I leaned over to get a better look. Several Blackwatch were clustered all over the stairwell on the other levels, as well as one putting something on the stairwell to the 10th floor. I immediately squeezed the trigger, blasting one nosy soldier in the face with three bullets. His body limply fell back against the wall. "We need to move!" I yelled as I leaned back. I led them up the stairs and around the corner, putting a bullet into the gut of Blackwatch that popped around the corner. Reaching the 8th floor, I heard a high pitched beeping. Looking up, plastic explosives with blinking red lights littered the 10th floor flight of stairs.

Several soldiers barged in through the door, rifles at the ready. Our squad shot them up, leaving only corpses as we trudged to the 9th floor. Looking up the flight, a single soldier stood with a trigger in his hands. Flipping it down, the beeping turned into one tone as the lights turned green. The sound of thunder shook up the entire stairwell as the next flight of stairs collapsed onto the last. I immediately pulled the trigger. He grabbed his chest as blood ran down his suit. He dropped to his knees, then fell head over heels onto flight below us.

"New plan." The leader said. "We make our way through the 9th floor to the other flight and get onto the roof from there." I grabbed the handle to the 9th floor door. I pushed it down and quickly made my way into the hallway. What I saw forced me to duck into the first room on the right. Looking into the room, the bed was soaked in blood. Several used syringes lay on a metal tray. The chairs were all torn up and one in pieces. The sound of a chain gun erupted in the hallway. The pungent odor of death wafted through the room. Peering back out, my fears were reassured as I saw the door I entered through full of holes. On the floor laid three more bodies. A female Marine was standing in the room across from me.

At the end of the hallway sat a scientist who had grabbed hold of the turret. I looked at her, and she nodded at me. Poking around the corner, I attracted the attention of the scientist. Before he could fire, the Marine ran up close to him. He looked over to her through his hazmat suit, only to have the visor shattered into his face. He slumped back onto the ground. I walked over the gun and kicked the tripod out from under it. Grabbing the chain gun, I lifted it placed it on the ground and picked up the munitions box. "Would you mind carrying this?" I asked her.

"Oh hell yeah." She responded calmly. But her eyes still quivered with guilt from seeing her allies being shot down. I handed it to her and she almost dropped it. "Shit! This thing is heavy." She said as she lifted it back up. I grabbed up the gun and we started forward again. Trudging down the hallway, we peered into each room. Each one was more or less like the first. Some had X-rays of people's infection sites. Several microscopes sat on the counters in some rooms. Others still had a dead body lying on the bed, flesh peeled back like a frog in biology class.

Then we came an intersection. "Which way?" I asked.

"Straight to hell!" A voice yelled out from our right. Several Blackwatch poured around the corner. They also came out from behind open doorways. We heard a thundering on our left. A helicopter stopped by the window while more soldiers poured in through the window.

I turned to the left and held the trigger. The barrel rolled up and sprayed the helicopter as it headed for the roof. Catching the rear rotor, shards of metal splintered off the rear. Sparks and black smoke poured off the rear as the chopper swirled around. The soldiers started to move forward, but it was too late. The chopper spun out of control and into the building. The still intact blades split the soldiers in two while the cab scraped across the linoleum floors. Fire quickly started to consume the hallway. "Fall back." I told her as I started to back away. We moved back and ducked into a room. Stepping back, I nudged something cool and metallic with my elbow. Behind me sat an aqua colored, small oxygen tank. "I got an idea."

Walking out into the hallway, smoke clouded the vision of everyone. She held the oxygen tank like an RPG with the nozzle pointed behind her. I walked behind her. With one fell swoop, my balled fist struck the nozzle and broke it off. A high pitched whistling attracted the attention of the Blackwatch. The canister flew from her hands and into the smoke. We both went in and grabbed the parts of the turret. We turned back around the corner in time to hear the explosion along with screams of anguish and anger. Charging through the smoke clouding the intersection, I saw the mangled bodies of the soldiers unfortunate enough to be close to the explosion. 5 more soldiers peeked around the corner and started shooting.

We entered into the room on our right. I leaned out and showered the hallway with bullets. 3 dropped in pieces while the others ducked back again. We ran out into the hallway. The two stepped out in front of us and fired. I ducked and she leaned against the wall. I dropped the gun and grabbed my rifle. Letting two rounds off quickly, I picked the gun up as more from behind came for us. I led her around the corner to the other stairwell.

"What about them?" She asked.

"Just keep moving!" I said as we reached the door to the roof. I braced myself and hit the door. It opened and banged against the wall. We both heard voices yelling from behind. She closed the door and placed some scrap metal from the roof across the door. With each push to open the door, the scrap metal grew weaker. Turning around, the base operator wore a suit with a large blue visor, and a yellow stripe down the outside of each leg. He lifted his pistol up. On either side stood another normal Blackwatch soldier. They also had their guns trained on me.

I handed to the gun to her. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Make sure no one interrupts the interrogation." I said as I turned around. One man fired a round. I leaned to the left and it flew past my head. I whipped my knife out and threw it. The knife struck the soldier on the right in the face. He went down holding his face. Whipping my rifle out, I pulled a trick straight of a movie. A bullet flew from the chamber, striking the gun out of the other Blackwatch soldier's hand. Doing it again, I shot the pistol from his hands. The normal soldier reached for his gun, but got a bullet in the side of his head and dropped to the ground. Then I heard another rumbling.

A second chopper rose above the roof top. I ran and grabbed the operator. "I'll shoot!" I yelled as I saw the guns angle towards me.

The operator seemed to look at me. "Ha, they'd rather shoot me then let you have the code." He was right too. The guns opened up as the helicopter strafed over the roof. Still holding him, I rolled behind a vent unit. Then, the chopper flew towards the girl.

"Look out!" I yelled. She turned around and immediately started to shoot. Rounds quickly punched through the glass, killing both the pilot and copilot. The chopper dropped down and skid across the roof. The door slid open and more soldiers pooled out. She started shooting into the crowd, mowing them into chunks. Satisfied, she turned back towards the door. "Hey! I'll watch the door, you report the situation." 

"Got it." I said as I pulled out the handheld radio given to me. "This is PFC Stern. We have possession of the target but we're pinned on the roof."

The other line quickly crackled to life. "Roger. Are they on the roof right now?" the male voice asked.

"No, but they will be soon. The rear staircase is the only one they're coming up through."

"Copy that. We'll clean them up in no time." The voice said before returning to static. I held tight to the base operator. He tried to squirm out several times, but was still unsuccessful. Then the scrap metal gave way. The door flopped open, allowing the soldiers to tromp in. The Marine pulled the trigger, but the chain was empty. One soldier promptly shot her in the knee. She dropped to one knee before getting a boot in the face. Out cold, she lay on the ground until a Blackwatch soldier lifted her up and held her by the throat.

"You shoot him, I shoot her." He called across the roof.

"You shoot her, I shoot him." I called back. The remaining soldiers in the building, that being about seven, stood around the one holding the Marine. Each one was trained on me. Then one I fired. I ducked behind his body, causing the body to strike his leg.

"Are you kidding me?" The Blackwatch trooper yelled, unable to console his wounded leg. I returned fire, striking the hostage holder in the forehead. They both dropped back onto the ground. The soldiers then opened fire, forcing me to duck behind an air unit. Bullets bounced off the metal sounding like rain. I lifted my gun up and fired a few rounds. I heard someone grunt and collapse on the ground.

Then I heard someone yell, "We got more of them." Peering over slightly, I saw several Marines firing into cover from behind. Leaping over, I began to run across the rooftop. A bullet caught me in my side and I rolled across the ground, as did the operator. Looking up, a single Blackwatch soldier looked at me from behind cover triumphantly. Started towards me to use me as a shield. As he got just close enough, I removed my hands from my wound, grabbed my knife from my side and stabbed him in the calf. Let out a cry of anger and dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. Then another gunshot silenced him.

I got onto my knees to see them taking the operator into custody and dragging the female Marine into the open. They carried both her and me down the steps. They placed me on a bed in a relatively untouched bed and they said a doctor would see me soon. Within minutes, a medic came in and got down on his knees. He took out a small flashlight and turned it on. Peering into my wound, he muttered to himself. Then without warning, he grabbed a pair of clean needles off the metal tray nearby and dug them into the hole. I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. I grabbed a clean portion of the cloth and put it between my teeth to keep from hurting them.

The medic stuck his tongue out in concentration and dug them deeper. "Could you dig any deeper?" I asked in sarcasm.

"Why?" He asked as the bullet in me started to pull out.

"Because if you're trying to check for my appendix, I know it should still be there." I said. Then a rush of fresh blood and relief ran through my wound as I felt him dig out the bullet. Then he pulled gauze out of a bag he was carrying. Creating a bandage, he then slapped it over the wound and said, "That'll do for now." As he went for the door, he motioned for others to come in. With that, four people in camo walked into the room. They lined up around me.

Each person took off their helmet. Emily, Odd, Jim, and Yumi stood around me. "How are you feeling?" Odd asked, still with a limp.

"Doing good." I said as I sat up in the bed. "Yumi's a Marine?" I asked next.

"Yeah. I did some talking with a Marine while you were inside. Also, I referenced you." Yumi said. I then got out of bed and stood up. I couldn't even feel the wound anymore. I healed up that quickly. "So…now what?" I asked.

"We celebrate." Emily answered simply. "This is the first step to a new Revolution. This is like the Bastille Day of the modern world."

Then Jim spoke up. "Today and tonight is a celebration. Tomorrow we start our movement to help and recruit the people. As well as the next military campaign against Blackwatch."

"So what's the next target?" I asked.

"We have the medicine," Yumi started, "but we don't have the power, if you know what I mean." I looked at her, confused. "You know, help the people to get more of them on our side. Give them the power they've been stripped of."

I continued to look at them lost until Odd spoke up. "She means we're gonna gain control of the power plants."


End file.
